A BATTLEFIELD by night, with just a small crescent of the moon and a few bright stars to light up the ground covered with dead bodies, all lying in different positions, some dreadfully shattered, some apparently quite uninjured, as though the spirit had fled without reason and left the body while yet it slept. Close by the battlefield is a huge redoubt of earth surrounded by a trench. On the top of the redoubt and in the trench are hundreds of soldiers; running down from the trench near the fort are yet other intrenchments, from the top of which project many scores of bayonets, the steel of which glistens in the soft moonlight and starlight rays, and tells of great numbers of armed men hidden away in the fosses. In the distance, on an opposite hill, sparkle many fires the camp fires of a large army. Now and then the sound of a bugle is heard; sometimes a flash as from a cannon is seen, and then a shell comes hurtling and screaming over the redoubt. Close to the fort itself is a little cavalcade fresh from a valley in the rear. Having been challenged, the sentry is now waiting till it can ex

Vol. XXXVII., No. 1-4.

plain why it is there in the dead of the night. Such was our position as I halted, and had time to gaze over those dreadful environs of Osman's stronghold.

I suppose the frequent contemplation of ghastly scenes renders a man very callous to even the most dreadful spectacles; yet it was with feelings of no ordinary emotion that I looked around on the ground where still lay eight thousand unburied Russian corpses. For here had raged the fiercest of the fight on those two terrible days-the 11th and 12th instant; here the enemy had fallen like wheat beneath the scythe. Taken between two fires, broken, dispersed, demoralized, they had run hither and thither helplessly for shelter, the while that the pitiless bullet, bayonet, sabre and shell were doing their deadly work. And here were the fearful results. Great heaps of dead literally covered the ground, many lying one upon another, having fallen so thickly as not to find room upon the bare earth whereon to die. They were in every conceivable posture-had received every description of wound. As I looked upon the

picture of battlefield is unlike the reality, when there is more variety of horror here than mind can imagine? Many of the bodies were naked, others nearly so, having been stripped by BashiBazouks and others needing clothes. Most of the dead were very young, mere striplings, not at all fit for the hardships of war-beardless boys with thin faces and fair hair, who ought to have been at home learning to read and write and gain an honest livelihood. They were to be found in holes where they had apparently hidden themselves when the storm of fire burst upon them, hoping against hope that they might perchance escape; they were by hundreds in the fosse of the redoubt, where they had been killed in trying to get over its parapet; they were under the hedges; two had been killed in a tree, and were there still lying athwart the boughs; wherever it was possible for them to be found, there they were. I believe M. Lorie sketched a heap lying immediately under the parapet of the fort.

Having seen many battlefields, it yet remained to me to be amazed at the terrible slaughter that had taken place on this hill. I know that the Turks did not suffer severely, although they were first of all beaten on the redoubt, and afterward had to retake it; and I cannot attempt to explain it. All I know is that twenty-four cartloads of Turkish dead-in all perhaps one hundred and twenty bodies-were first of all removed from the field yesterday morning. Then another lot, say one hundred, were taken away and buried. After this I saw four carts, holding fifteen or twenty, and I believe about sixty more bodies were afterward found on the field-in all three hundred or But here were eight thousand Russians lying stark and cold. Our wounded would amount to another seven hundred, or perhaps a few more; in all, perhaps, one thousand or one thousand one hundred Turks were put out of combat. The Russians had left eight times the number behind them; and I am quite unable to explain it on any other ground than that at last the Russians were so terror-stricken that they were unable to run, and so were caught and killed without very much trouble.

80.

We had started once before from Plevna, and failed in our effort. Our troubles on that first occasion were manifold from the beginning. One of the baggage horses rolled over, a cavalier was dismounted, and we had to halt every few moments for some one in trouble. When at length we neared the first fort a serious difficulty began. It was very dark; we could hear Turkish soldiers calling out to know who we were, and threatening to fire, and yet could not ascertain their

tion we asked each other the while that we tried to scan all the ground immediately above us, when a guard descended from the hill and took us all into custody. It was not a very serious matter, though it afterward appeared that the men were just about to fire when somebody suggested it might be as well to ascertain who the strangers were. We quickly told our story, and were passed on to the second battery.

But now came a far more serious difficulty. We must go up to the redoubt which had but lately been taken by surprise at the top of the hill, and to do this we must ascend in the very face of all their men, in the dark. Worse than all, though we did not know it at the moment, was the fact that a large body of Russians had been seen near the redoubt shortly before sunset, and that the troops had been told to keep a sharp lookout, especially for cavalry. A sharp lookout they certainly kept, for we had not gone more than half a mile or so before we were challenged, and had only time to rein up before arms were presented at us, and we were once more nearly erased from the list of able and effective men. Happily for us, the soldiers were very cool; they contented themselves with covering us with the muzzles of their rifles till we were safely inside the intrenchments without power of escape had we been been foes, and then the commandant of the fort was sent for, and we formed the group on the battlefield of which I have already told you.

66

The commandant said we must go no further. "I have seen five thousand Russian cavalry down in the hollow yonder myself," said he, "to-day; and there are great numbers of infantry there, too. They will attack us in an hour. If they do not, you may go on." In vain I urged that the Circassians could take us by a bypath. The commandant would not hear of it. "Circassians !" he said. They will either run away and leave you, or murder you themselves. Do not go." I still thought that I might succeed, and again begged to be allowed to proceed. The commandant hesitated, the more so as I showed him a permit to pass, given me by Osman Pasha, when at this critical moment the Turkish colonel who was with us showed the white feather. "He would not go to certain death," he said, and he began to undo the cords of a pack horse which contained some of his and my baggage. Instanter there was a mutiny. The sergeant said he would retreat if his officer did. The Greek groom declared he would go no further; and a Bulgarian, who was with us to lead a pack horse, got down from his saddle and said he, too, would return.

My hopes of escape were dashed in a moment. The eloquence of the Turkish commandant and the fright of the Turkish colonel had done it all. One of the Circassians now gave in, and urged me not to go. I was obliged to return.

Strange enough, about an hour later the Russians did attack that very redoubt in great force, fighting for two or three hours, and adding some. hundreds more to their dead already on the field, gaining nothing, and wasting ammunition. So that, perhaps, on the whole, we were better off than we might otherwise have been, although to me the scheme appeared feasible. I am bound to say that in all this I was supported by M. Victor Lorie, who never flinched for a moment, and who would certainly have accompanied me to the last.

How I eventually escaped from the blockade at Plevna, and rendered myself at Pera, is necessarily a matter which more intimately interests me than anyone else. As, however, in the course of that twenty-nine hours' ride from Plevna to Orhanie, previously mentioned, I noted sundry curious facts in the interior as well as the environs of the Russian camp, I may, perhaps, be pardoned if I narrate my experience.

Saturday afternoon, September 15th, had nearly run its course, when four ruffians, whose faces

would have entitled any one of them to summary conviction before any magistrate, entered my tent at Plevna. Was it true that I was searching for guides to Orhanie? It was, undoubtedly. What would I pay, considering the risk to be run? "That," I replied, "has already been fixed by Osman Pasha. Whoever takes me through the Russian lines will have two thousand piasters." Hereupon a long parley ensued, during which the dangers of the trip were dwelt upon, and more money demanded, which was steadfastly refused. At last some sort of agreement was made, and then came the arrangement of details.

I was to wear my sword and revolver, dress as nearly like a Russian as possible, and especially in the matter of headdress eschew a fez. We could only take the slightest quantity of baggage; nothing that would rattle or clank would be permitted, and I must be prepared to fight at any moment, as running would probably be out of the question. All of which having also been agreed to, we adjourned to Osman Pasha's tent to get permission to start.

At first my hopes were dashed. You cannot go," said the marshal. "You will never get through. Of thirty Circassians who have tried singly, only two have ever succeeded; the others have been captured and killed: it is impossible

OSMAN PASHA.

for a party of several men to go through the Russian camp without being caught. And even if it were possible, I am very certain that you would then only have jumped out of the frying pan into the fire; for, failing the Cossacks, your own Circassians would murder you for the sake of your horse and your clothing."

In vain I pleaded that I must make the attempt at all hazards. The marshal sat without uttering a word for several minutes. At last he said: "Well, if you will go, do so; it is certain death. You have but a very poor chance of escape. But since you are determined to try, I will take care that Circassians do not kill you; for I will send a couple of Zaptiehs with them to guard you from your friends. If you are to be murdered, Cossacks shall have the task, not your own rascals;" saying which, he sent for two men, one a Circassian himself, but a trusty military policeman for all that, and the other an Albanian Turk, to whose care he confided me, with sundry menaces in case aught but a Cossack should chance to touch me; and ordering the Circassians to divide the reward with these men, bade me "adieu," and so let us go.

Six o'clock saw our little party of eleven quitting the town of Plevna by a narrow path which runs just under the Gravitza redoubt. Thus we were fairly on our way. A bright night, with a rising moon, not a cloud in the heavens-everything

about as favorable for such a trip as might be. On we went; the Circassians, two abreast, jogging silently along, with their Winchester rifles. slung over their backs, each, however, charged with twelve cartridges; then the Albanian Turk, next myself and servant, a groom with a baggage horse, the last Zaptieh with a spare horse for me, my own having been wounded twice during the battle of the 12th, and still suffering from a suppurating bullet hole below the knee; last of all the Turkish officer with his servant, and another horse for case of extreme need.

During the first hour all went well enough; indeed, too well, for to my astonishment the Turkish cavalry outposts failed to challenge us, perhaps recognizing the Circassian headdress, and let us go on without a moment's delay. It was polite and agreeable, but not soldierlike. We had now some little distance to traverse before we should reach the Russian lines, but what that might be we had no means of knowing; it was now, therefore, that our task began to be very difficult, as we had innumerable reasons for not stumbling upon a line of sentinels anywhere just then. We had accordingly to send out scouts, each taking it by turn, to see if the road was clear a task which, I am bound to say, is much more exciting than pleasant, especially if you chance to be mounted on a wounded horse.

It so happened that I was the first to see a little camp fire and a number of men lying upon the ground, a spectacle of some interest, as betokening the serious approach of danger. I told our Circassians what I had seen, and indicated the direction; upon which one of them, changing his cap and sundry other articles of dress in such a way as to become, in a minute or so, the very type of a Cossack, rode to the front, and gallantly leading us on at a gentle trot, was soon up to the place where their infantry lay. In the very best Russian, I suppose, he answered their challenge. At least, I suppose he talked to them in their own loved tongue, for the idiots let us pass them at once, and we were instantly free in the Russian lines.

I remember in my very early days gloating over the adventures of Fenimore Cooper's heroes, and enjoying the imaginary romantic adventures of the men who so pleasantly eluded their dusky pursuers; but I am bound to say that the realities of that Saturday night were far from being agrecable. Do what we would, we seemed to be treading upon bayonets and sabres at every step-not actually, of course, but figuratively-for, despite the precaution we took of halting every few moments, it was by the merest accident over and over again that we did not rush into the arms of